Not many musicians get to start a recording career at 12 years old in a band (trio, actually) which later gains a Grammy and a string of other major awards.

Well, Sara Watkins (fiddle, guitar, ukulele) did just that as a member of Nickel Creek with her brother, Sean (guitar) and family friend, Chris Thiele (mandolin). The trio made five studio albums (plus a compilation), released seven singles and made bluegrass and country music headlines galore.

Their self-titled third album, recorded when Sara, pictured, was eighteen, became their breakthrough record in 2001. After Nickel Creek's demise in 2007, Sara embarked on a singular path and released her first solo record – produced by former Led Zeppelin multi-instrumentalist, John Paul Jones – in 2009.

After that, she worked with the Decemberists and John Mayer and also played a part in the 2010 Transatlantic Sessions (the 2013 version is due here again soon).

NEXT Thursday night's guests at the Live Theatre's Studio are also from California, this time a little further north in Fresno in the San Joaquin valley.

The Old Tire Swingers are an old-timey string-band with the focus of their inspiration a couple of thousand miles to the east of their home town, in the Appalachian mountains.

That remoteness from the source, so to speak, is no barrier to proficiency if the evidence of the band's self-titled, self-released album is any kind of proof.

FOR fans of a soul-music inclination, there is a chance to catch the Hamish Stuart Band at Hoochie Coochie in Newcastle tomorrow night. The former Average White Band mainman brings his band to the soul-club (formerly Blue Coyote) on Pilgrim Street.